Hostel, Hotels, Budget Accomodations: Questions and tips Safety, services and general questions. Is there a camp ground in...
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10-13-2005, 09:38 AM
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#1
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Members
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Hey guys I need to buy a hostel discount card right away as I need to start booking some hostel reservations for my Australia/ NZ trip comng up. Which one is best? Should I even get one? Any info would help thanks.
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10-13-2005, 10:21 AM
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#2
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TPunk Emeritus
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I don't know about Aussie and NZ, but if they're at all like Europe, don't bother. Go to the main page where there is a hostel booking engine and you can go from there.
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10-13-2005, 10:25 AM
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#3
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Tpunk Senior Moderators
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Well scabby, you have a lot of options here with hostel cards. There's a lot of variety and I found a lot by googling it, but I can't really give you my first hand opinion since I've never used one.
One that I found is called the Hostelling International Card (YHA). They have hostels in N. and S. America, Europe, Africa, Asia, etc. etc. (about 5000 hostels in 60 countries). You usually buy them through the hostels themselves or through some travel agencies. It costs about $25 (US) and discounts are around three dollars.
Another set of cards that are also popular is the cards that the International Student Travel Confederation gives which are the ISIC, IYTC, and ITIC cards. Thet're only valid for a year and they cost about $22 (US). The ISIC is for students, IYTC for youths under 26 years, and the ITIC is for full time teachers. According to their website you can also get discounts on travel stuff like ferries, trains, etc. To find an office where you can buy one, go here and fill in your country, city, and make sure you set the filter to only offices that offer one of the three cards you need. If you go here the website will show you exactly what you can get a discount on with a Student card in Australia. I was looking at it and you get discounts not only in hostels but at restaurants (Hard Rock Cafe), museums, transportation, and general stores (Borders, Lonely Planet).
Apparantly there are others specifically for Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, but I can't find any information of the card itself. Maybe you'll have better luck by going here or here.
Well, just from researching them, I could tell you that I would definetly choose a ISIC card over the others. But that's just me. Research some! Maybe you'll find some more benefits to the YHA Card that I overlooked or you'll actually understand some of the stuff they were saying about Nomads and VIP Backpackers. ISIC seemed more reliable than the last two and seems to have more benefits than YHA.
Here are the links I used:
ISTC
HI Hostels
Lost Luggage Tales Discount Cards
VIP Backpackers
Nomad's World
Good luck and have fun!!
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10-13-2005, 07:06 PM
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#4
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Join Date: Nov 2004
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This upcoming Monday night, I'll be staying at an HI hostel...I'm wondering if I should purchase a membership, considering it'll save me $3 that first time...and I plan to travel extensively in the next year, so only 9 hostel stays will likely offset my cost...opinions?
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Matthew
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10-14-2005, 11:26 AM
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#5
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TPunk Emeritus
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I had the Hostelling international card during my trip to oz/nz. I would highly suggest it. Even if you don't plan on staying at just yha's it's still a good value. For a lot of attractions they offer a "yha" discount. Always ask. And sometimes the discount is like $4 or so! Pretty good for a poor backpacker. Also some hostels not affiliated with the hostelling international organization still accept the card for a discount. The other card option is with VIP. They also have a network of hostels in oz. However lots of there hostels are shit!
Over the year I saved a lot of money having the card, so it was well worth it. And with the membership cost you also get a subscription to Outpost (which is a travel magazine), though mabye it's just the canadian hostelling organization.
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Where to Next? Iceland!
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